


Mental Block

by Mari_UC



Series: BirdFlash - Young Justice [6]
Category: DCU (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Family Feels, Fluff and Angst, M/M, POV Iris West, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-06
Updated: 2018-11-06
Packaged: 2019-08-19 16:01:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16537745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mari_UC/pseuds/Mari_UC
Summary: Iris couldn’t help to feel guilty, for not realizing how much Wally had been bottling up his feelings until that moment, how much the rejection of his parents had affected him. She’d let herself be fooled by his bright smile and easy-going behavior, and she’d lulled herself into the idea her boy was happy and safe with her, when reality was that he’d just caged his feelings.She’d never even realized how bad her own kid was hurting.She’d done nothing.And because of that, her boy was in a place she couldn’t help him.





	Mental Block

**Author's Note:**

> So, option 1 won, I’ll be posting the stories out of chronological order. 
> 
> This is an Iris POV, and it’s set during the ending of Winter Camp. You can think of it as a second epilogue.

“West. To my office.”

Iris dropped the red marker she was supposed to be using to proofread her latest article and jumped to his feet, marching after Draper. The political editor was known for his short temper and tough love, but more importantly, his _impatience_.

She closed the door behind her and sat on the green chair as she waited for Draper to hang his jacket on a perch, she jumped a little when a manila folder was dropped in front of her out of nowhere, but recognized it immediately; it was an _editorial review_ folder.

It didn’t took much brain power to deduce that was her article and editorial review had returned it.

_Again…_

Iris wanted to sigh and curse at the same time.

“Aren’t you gonna open it, West?” Draper said looking at her and raising an eyebrow as he made his way to his leather chair.

“How bad?” Iris asked instead of replying, they both knew what this meant, so no need to play around it. It had to be bad, though, if Draper had taken the time to drag her to the office, instead of doing a very public, very loud admonishing, as he did whenever the reviewers sent an article back with minor changes.

Private meeting meant it was _bad_. The question, though, was _how bad_.

“Four paragraphs, West,” Her boss said lifting four fingers to drive his point “That’s how much the reviewer was able to read. She said, and I quote ‘ _It really felt like a waste of time to continue_ ’, and quite frankly, going by the amount of red on that page, I’m tempted to agree.” Iris swallowed and opened the envelope, cursing as the two pages fell on her hands and she saw the markings, at least half the words on her first line alone had been crossed off, underlined or marked one way or another.

_Well, shit._

“Draper…” she tried, but was cut off almost immediately by her boss.

“No, West,” he said curtly looking at her disappointed. “I don’t want an excuse. I already had to give a bunch of those to the review board,” he said waving her off before pointing at the document on her hands “This is the second time in two weeks that I have to go up there and listen to those assholes tell me how the work of my best reporter is _trash_. Wait, no, no: ‘ _Unpublishable trash’_. Twice, I’ve had to cover your ass, West, I won’t do it a third time.” His tone was harsh and Iris felt her face heat up at the tone.

“I… yes, boss.” She said feeling like a scolded teenager. Draper was right, excuses right now were useless.

Draper’s severe tone prevented her from derailing from the conversation. “So, here’s what we’re going to do.” Draper continued reclining himself on the chair and pointing his finger to Iris. “ _You_ are going to take the rest of the day off and are going to eat or shop, or drink, or smoke. Hell kid, go snort cocaine if it relaxes you… The point is, I want you to take whatever it’s making you lose your touch and just _deal with it_ so I don’t have to. Got it?” He raised his eyebrow and looked at her straight on the eyes, barely repressing the exasperation he was feeling, though Iris could also see the pleasure he got out of that last part.

_Snort cocaine, really?_

“Yessir,” Iris schooled her expression and actually managed to look chastised and prevent the smile on her lips to show… _too much_. _Draper_ sighed and smiled at her “Good… good, now that _that’s_ out of the way…” he swatted with his hand, and suddenly Iris saw the _Boss_ mask falling and she could see _Jay_ sitting in front of her. “What is going on, kid, and don’t bullshit me, I know something’s wrong.”

Jacob “Jay” Draper had been her first boss back when she was an intern at a radio station. Jay had seen something in her even back then, and offered her a job in a little independent team. They had focused on long-term research journalism with the odd job as independent correspondents for several local news outlets. Couple years later, the team had split and they’d ended up in CCPN, Jay landing as the Political Editor and Iris as a Junior Political Correspondent. She had reached Senior now and – if rumors were true – Jay had nominated her to take his place next year when he’ll retire to go back as an independent blogger.

Draper and West were coworkers, boss and employee.

Jay and Iris were friends.

They were long-time friends, and he was actually one of maybe three people Iris really trusted in CCPN to call her friends. But they always tried to keep the distinction clear on the workplace. If he was breaking it, it meant he was really worried.

Iris sighed, and tried to downplay it “Yeah, Jay. It’s… It’s just family drama. I… I should know better than to let me affect work, it’s just… I’m having a mental block”

“Anything I can do, kiddo?” Jay said smiling softly at her with a raised eyebrow telegraphing he wasn’t buying it, but accepting she didn’t wanted to talk about it, she smiled at him, a real smile and put her hand on his arm to give it a little squeeze, trying to convey a sense of ease she wasn’t feeling. “Nah, Jay, I got it. I…”

“Look, I meant it… the whole day off thing; go be with your husband and that _devil_ you call a nephew, get some recharge before coming back in.” Iris’ smile froze at the mention of his nephew. Jay knew Wally, he had taken a liking on the kid about four years back, when he started living with them. Iris had never told him about Rudy and he’d never asked, but he was keen enough to notice that something was going on with Iris’ family at the time, so he’d taken upon himself to ease her workload during those first weeks of juggling life with the newest addition to his home.

She had never forgotten that. “Yeah… Yeah, I’ll do that,” Iris said trying as hard as she could to keep her smile on her face.

“If you need anything, just call,” Jay said looking at her earnestly and she smiled and stood up taking the folder with her, he looked at it again and groaned “And for _God’s sake_ , remember to run a spell-check on the article next time, I swear I lose two years of my life each time I have to hear Kevin going on about orthographic errors.”

“Will do, Jay,” she laughed turning to leave the office hearing Jay’s aggravated huff about not being taken seriously as she closed the door.

She went back to the article she was supposed to be reviewing and put both of them in her briefcase. Then, she asked Linda to forward any call on the landline to her cellphone, before finishing packing up and driving home, thinking about how to take her head away from things.

_Things_ , being the code word from the absolute insanity that had taken over her family for the past five weeks.

Iris had been thrilled when she saw Rudy walking into her home, in a nice suit, asking politely to talk about Wally. For a moment there, she’d thought Barry had been right all along and Rudy had finally realized he’d been an ass for the past four years and was coming to apologize. To finally be reunited with his son.

Iris was thinking about how she was going to make sure Wally wouldn’t suffer from this, how to make sure he’ll be emotionally prepared to deal with having his parents once more in his life, reminding him that he could always count with his aunt and uncle for anything. And a part of her was already grieving about the fact that his little devil wouldn’t be home anymore.

But, then Rudy started talking about the stupid _straight_ _camp_ bullshit and she’d lost it. Rudy wasn’t having Wally back, he’d come with a ‘ _cure’_ to ‘ _fix him’_.

Well, fuck him very much.

Had Wally walked into the room five minutes later, Iris would have finished kicking Rudy out and Wally wouldn’t have known about him. It would have killed Iris, to hide this from Wally, to keep him apart from his father; and if he would have found out she’d hid something like this from him, Wally would probably hate her for doing it, but he wouldn’t be on a camp doing God knows what to stop himself from _loving._

He would still be here with her.

He would still have a boyfriend who loved him.

He would continue on that road of self-acceptance he’d just barely started, before that good for nothing for a father had decided to come home and just ripped him from his life.

The second she saw Wally walk upstairs to his room, after listening to Rudy, Iris had realized he’ll go along with this.

And Iris couldn’t help to feel guilty, for not realizing how much Wally had been bottling up his feelings until that moment, how much the rejection of his parents had affected him. She’d let herself be fooled by his bright smile and easy-going behavior, and she’d lulled herself into the idea her boy was happy and safe with her, when reality was that he’d just caged his feelings.

She’d never even realized how bad her own kid was hurting.

She’d done nothing.

And because of that, her boy was in a place she couldn’t help him. A place she felt _in her bones_ wasn’t right for him.

Iris had scoffed and dismissed her mom so many years ago, when she’d talked about _mother’s intuition_. Mother knows best…

She’d thought it was just Mom being a mom. Worrying and then blaming it on intuition.

Now, though, seeing Wally walk out with his baggage, going to _that place_. Iris had felt her insides twist and turn, she’d felt her bones ache at the idea that Wally was making a _mistake_. That it was _wrong_. Her boy shouldn’t have to go there.

And the inaction, the inability to move and stope him and force him to stay was _killing_ her.

She’d prayed to God that this was just a necessary step for Wally, that he’ll come out of that place with more experience and…

And that whatever it might be the result, she could find the strength to move with Wally. If he wants to go back to his family; if he wants to stay with her, but try to… deny who he is. If he decides he’s actually happy as a gay man, and wants to live _his_ life…

Iris will support him.

She will.

She has to…

Her kid’s not going to lose another family just because his father decided to mold him on his image. Iris will be there, even if she has to bite her tongue at Wally’s decision. Even if he denies who he is.

She won’t be happy, and she’ll try to convince him… But in the end it’s Wally’s life and she wants to be a part of it. Goddamnit, she _is_ going to be a part of it, and fuck Rudy if he thinks he can keep her away.

_-_-_-_-_-_

After taking a long bath and managing to advance a little on the book on Thatcher’s memoirs she was currently reading, Iris looked at the clock and decided she should get started with the dinner. The single thought of ‘ _I wonder_ _what they’re giving Wally to eat?’_ crossed her mind, as it did every time she started cooking. She went to the fridge and retrieved some of yesterday’s leftovers. She was still getting used to cooking for one speedster in the house, so for the last week most of her dinners ended with two or three food containers being placed in the fridge.

She might or might not have cried a little in the bathroom that first night, when she realized she’d cooked too much. Barry had pretended not to notice, and he’d even apologized for ‘ _not eating_ _all this beautiful food you made for me; but I guess I’m not that hungry today.’_ But she knew he only did it to try and make her forget the fact that she’d just done too much. And it might be a stupid thing to get worked up about, but she used to enjoy cooking for her boys.

She grabbed the rotisserie chicken and decided on shredded chicken and pasta.

The pasta water was just about to boil when the phone on the table started vibrating, Iris left the pasta package on the counter and looked at the _Unknown Caller_ sign on her phone. Thinking back to the last article, she thought it might be a lead from the Senator’s piece, so she quickly picked up.

“Iris. I need you to put Wally on the phone.” The familiar angry voice of the caller threw her off for a second, before she connected the voice to her brother. “ _Rudy_? Wha-” She started to chastise him, before his demand clicked on her brain. “Wait, what do you mean, Wally? He’s with you, in that infernal place,” he half stated, half asked, a suspicion sneaking on her brain.

“He’s not… He hasn’t arrived there, yet?” her brother asked, confirming her idea that Wally had ran off. He’d ran off. She… “Rudy, what happened?”

She heard her brother huff “What happened? Let me tell you what happened… Wally came here, he disrespected Father Willis, humiliated us, and then ran off.” Rudy sounded hurt and angry but all Iris could focus on was the last part of his sentence. Ran off… Wally ran off…. Apparently with enough time for Rudy to believe he’d arrived home and he could call him to… Iris was about to ask her brother what he needed with Wally when he continued talking, whispering on the phone “D- Did you knew he had a _boyfriend_ , Iris?”

And of many, many things she could expect her brother to ask her, _that one_ was about the last on her mind. “He told you?” she asked him before she had a time to even consider a comeback.

“Of _course_ you knew.” Rudy scoffed at her, and Iris couldn’t help the smile that came of the frustrated sound, “God, Iris could you try to be a little less of an enabler for that kid?”

“Oh, Fuck you, Rudy,” she said rolling her eyes even though he couldn’t see her. “I’m glad he left, he probably just realized how sick this whole _let’s cure you_ thing you wanted to do really is.” She threw back at him focusing on the giddy feeling she had right now thinking of Wally out of that horrible place. Then she grinned thinking on _where_ Wally might be right now. “Look, you shouldn’t worry about him; right now, he’s probably just having some nice make-up sex with his boyfriend.”

Iris smiled at the choking noise and indignant screech at the other side of the line and before her brother had a chance to retort she said goodbye and hung up feeling elated at the news she had just gotten.

She felt herself grin as she went through her contact list searching for a number to call. Wally had left his phone here, so she’ll need to call someone on the Wayne family.  She found Dick’s and was about to call, but decided against it. Maybe they were having a heart to heart and she didn’t wanted to interrupt them. Bruce Wayne was probably in his office right now, and she didn’t had their home landline, or Alfred’s number.

She cursed out loud thinking that maybe she could just wait until he arrives, but the tingling in her skin as she thought about Wally free from that place prevented her from actually leaving the phone on the table. She decided to just call Barry at work and try to get the number from him.

The phone rang twice before her husband’s voice came through. “Hey, you…” Iris couldn’t help but frown at the tired tone, but she knew Barry had been having a hard time lately. Despite not being home as much since the Team was formed, Barry had come to depend on Wally’s help in dealing with the City, and if you add the normal increase in workload due to holiday domestic violence cases, he’d been swamped on the weeks leading to Christmas.

Still, she might manage to cheer him up, so she didn’t let the tone dampen her energy. “Hey, honey. How’s your day?” she said trying to channel some of her positivity.

“Horrible,” Barry replied honestly and Iris felt herself hum sadly at his tone; she decided that now that Wally was out, she’ll take Jay’s suggestion and try to make a nice evening for her boys. “But… you sound happy, got some good news? Please tell me you have good news. I really could use some good news.” Barry kept talking as he seemed to notice her tone.

“Uh-huh,” she muttered barely containing her energy “Rudy just called, Wally bailed from that… _place_.” She said laughing on the phone and feeling ten times better just saying it out loud. The weird pressure on her bones finally lifting at being able to say those words to Barry.

“What?” She heard a chair being dragged and she imagined Barry standing up at the news, “Wow, that’s _great_ news. Is he there with you? _No he isn’t, he can’t be, or you wouldn’t have heard from Rudy, Duh! So, what? Do we need to go get him? Does he need a ride? ‘Cause I can go up there as Flash and bring him… but, no, going there wouldprobablybeabadidea,maybehecancomehomerunning,ifthere’saforesttherehecouldhideinthereandrunhome,waitaminutewhyhasn’therunhomeyet,ishe-_ ” He’d started talking normally, and happy, but at some point he started speed-talking and Iris just sighed used to her husband going from 0 to 1000 in half a second. “Stop,” she ordered with a strong voice but unable to keep the smile from her face. “Babe… breathe. Slow down,” she instructed him, knowing exactly how to bring back her husband out of the Speed Force “I barely got anything you said after ‘Does he need a ride?’” she said reeling him back in.

“Sorry. Does he need it, though?” Barry asked.

“No, apparently he ran, but my guess is, he ran to Gotham.” She told Barry her suspicion, and was about to ask him for Wayne’s number when Barry interrupted her again. “Oh, you want me to run there and bring him home? I’ll be there in a-”

“No!” She cut him, knowing him he probably already had his hand on the ring, ready to pull out the suit. That man had no self-control, seriously. “Babe, I just need the Wayne’s landline number.” She said, finally getting to the reason of her call.

“What?” She frowned at the tone, a little confused at the lack of energy in that question, still, she played it off. “Wayne’s landline number… you know, the phone of Dick Grayson’s house. Wally’s boyfriend… I need the number of the place he probably ran to…” She kept elaborating as Barry remained silent on the other side. Then, he simple muttered a soft “Oh…” and Iris couldn’t ignore the lack of energy anymore.

“What is it?” she asked softly, only to get a detached “Nothing…”

“Bear, come on… What is it?” she asked again, now getting really worried about his husband. It wasn’t normal for him to simply shut down and get deflated on a conversation, let alone after receiving good news. Barry clicked his tongue a couple times before he sighed and answered.

“It’s… It’s just that, when Wally was thinking about going with Rudy, I… I didn’t do anything to stop him. There wasn’t much I _could do_ , really, but, I didn’t… And now he’s out and I thought… You know… maybe I could… _do_ something,” he said softly to the phone and Iris suddenly felt a need to hug and kiss her husband. They hadn’t talked much about Wally going away, other than to agree they’ll let him make his decisions and support him through them.

During these three weeks she’d been aching to find something she could _do_ to help Wally out, and she’d felt like crap when there was nothing. Just a couple hours ago she’d been cursing the _inaction_. She could only _imagine_ how that could have felt for her husband, for the Flash. Not doing anything was about the worst thing for him.

She hummed in understanding and decided to go with some general reassurance. She knew he’ll feel better once Wally was home, and he could have his partner back. “You are helping, honey… You’re being an amazing Uncle and an even greater mentor. You’re still Wally’s favorite hero, you know?” she reminded him.

“Yeah, I guess…” He muttered, and she could feel he wasn’t entirely convinced, so she decided to press a little.

“You are. Don’t forget it… And now that he’s out of there, you two can go back to being Flash and Kid Flash, you know? Try to ease him back into a routine. Help him forget about Rudy’s stupid plan,” she knew Wally would be torn about this decision. Rudy hadn’t said anything, but it looked like Wally might have had a strong fight with his father. A huge one if he blurted out about having Dick with him.

Barry hummed his agreement a little more enthusiastically and Iris smiled a little, before remembering the reason for the call. “Now, about that number…” Barry gave it to her, and after getting an approximate ETA for dinner, she hung up to call Wally.

This time, the phone rang close to six times before it was answered.

“Wayne residence,” Iris recognized the butler’s voice immediately and greeted him. “Alfred, hi. It’s Iris, Iris West,”

“Ah, Miss West, of course. How are you today?”

“Fine, fine, thank you, how are you?” She replied, somehow managing not to forget her manners before actually going to the point.

“Very good, thank you for asking. I imagine you’re calling for a certain runaway speedster of yours.” Alfred replied and Iris exhaled deeply calming herself after confirming her suspicion had been proven true. “Yes! He’s there, then?”

“He is.” Alfred confirmed. “Arrived maybe twenty minutes ago. Why don’t you give me a second, I’ll patch you to Master Dick’s room.” She asked him if she wouldn’t be interrupting, but the butler seemed to be certain it would be fine, so she hummed in agreement and soon enough she heard a beep informing her she’d been connected to a new line. A couple seconds later the line beeped and she heard his nephew’s voice. “Hello?”

“Wally!” A part of Iris actually felt a little ashamed at her happy outburst and she managed to restrain herself before replying with the more traditional “Hi”.

“Aunt I…?” Wally’s confused voice came after half a second, and she could hear Dick’s voice on the background, but didn’t manage to catch what he was saying as Wally started to ramble. “How… uhm… I mean, Hi. How did…?”

“Rudy called, said you left and since you aren’t here, I gathered you’d be with Dick.” She informed him. Now that he knew he was safe, all she wanted to ask was when will he be home, but she decided not to press his boy.

“Yeah… I meant to go there, but…” he started to apologize but she decided to cut him off, she completely understood his need to fix things up with Dick before anything else. “Hey, don’t worry kiddo, I get it. Just… make sure you get home before it goes really dark, ok? Roads are slippery this time of year…” She said calming him down. She didn’t knew how to continue, and was thinking about cutting the conversation when Jay’s idea popped into her mind.

“Did you had dinner already?” she asked already thinking on how to improve her current plans to include Wally’s favorite dinner.

“I did… though I ran a lot today, so…” Wally said, and Iris managed to catch some foreign feeling in that tone that she didn’t like at all. “Ok. Then, I’ll make you an after-dinner… say, 10?”

“You really don’t have to, Aunt, I can-” She scoffed at him. Cooking for her speedsters was one of the most relaxing things she got to do on an everyday basis. “Nonsense, kid. I want to. I’ll make you something yummy. Now, I’m sure you have better things to do than talking to me…” she said looking at the clock and trying to get a time table for her cooking.

Wally simply hummed and she got the feeling he and Dick were having some sort of silent conversation, so she decided to cut her talk then after having Wally promise again he would come home before 10. She sent a text to Barry with the change of plans and asked him to bring some stuff with him when he arrived.

She wouldn’t really have to change the menu all that much. Wally loves his bacon-parm lasagna, and she usually does it with ground meat, but this time it can be a chicken-bacon-parm lasagna. She looked at the clock again, set some mental timers and busied herself with the relaxing process of cooking for her boys.

_-_-_-_-_

Barry arrived some 15 minutes after 9, right in time for Iris to put the three baking dishes on the oven. Wally had said he’d eaten something, so Iris had decided not to make a full speedster meal, just one and a half 9 by 6 inch dishes for each speedster.

Barry arrived with the bread and the seltzer water, and she had him mix the drink while she made the garlic bread ready for the oven.

About twenty minutes later, Iris couldn’t help but turn back and look at his husband walking around the kitchen making a jug of his and Wally’s favorite drink: a seltzer cherry lemonade. He was smiling a lot and telling her about his job and how he’d gotten a ton of work done since she’d called him. He was currently going over some shipment that the Flash was going to stop tonight after a tip he got from a detective today.

He was gesturing wildly and energetically while cutting and juicing the lemons and Iris stopped cooking to simply turn and admire his husband’s happiness. He turned around to grab something and stopped mid-sentence looking at her weirdly “What?”

Iris smiled back at him and put both her hands on his chest. “You look happy,” she said before giving him a peck on his chin, “I like seeing you happy.”

“What are you talking about? I’m always happy. I have you, don’t I?” he said and Iris scoffed and gave him a little smack on his arm. “Don’t be cheesy,” she said before turning around and continuing slicing the bread “I know you’ve been down the last couple days, plus you’ve been really busy with work,” she told him with a little side glance to warn him not to contradict her just as she felt he might start protesting. “It’s good seeing you smile,” she finished.

Barry moved to stand behind her and enveloped her in his arms bringing her close and pressing his nose against her hair. “It’s good seeing you smile too.” She closed her eyes letting herself enjoy Barry’s unnaturally warm body for a couple seconds, or maybe even a couple minutes, she’d really lost count there. Barry hummed pleasantly after a while before sighing. “God, I needed this,” Iris couldn’t agree more so she simply hummed.

“Now where are the cherries?” her husband asked and she sighed before turning and pointing to the third cupboard to the left, the one where she keeps all the canned and jarred products, the same one where she’d been keeping them for the past 5 years.

She smiled at Barry’s accomplished _Oh, yeah, I found them!_ Before he went back to his story about the smugglers while finishing the drink.

Twenty minutes later, as she was taking the lasagnas out of the oven, the doorbell rang. Iris and Barry looked at each other for a second confused before Barry went to the front door.

Iris tried to listen to whoever had arrived, but couldn’t hear anything. A couple seconds later, Barry walked into the kitchen with Wally on his tow. She looked at them confused for a second, before the fact that Wally was in there suddenly clicked on her mind. “Wally!” she moved and gave her nephew a big hug, feeling whatever remnants of worry wash off her mind. She moved back and remembered the ringing and she asked the only explanation she could think of, “Why did you ring? Did you lost your keys?”

Wally looked down and shook his head, and Iris felt something in her gut twist at the sight, Wally looked dejected and down and she was worried about it. Of course, she hadn’t expected him to come all happy and talkative like always, but he was starting to worry her. “Wally, what is it?” she asked trying to get Wally to look up at her, an idea passed through her head “Is everything ok with Dick?”

She was a little heartbroken to see Wally’s face fell even more at that, “No…” he said keeping his head down on the ground before shrugging a little “We… I think we’re still broken up… I’m gonna try, though.” And Iris was glad to notice the brightness in his eyes as he said that, at least a part of her boy was still willing to fight on that. “Good. You two belong together, you’ll see,” she said convinced.

Dick was probably going over a rough path after Wally ended things, and if she was correct, this was probably the first time the kid was going though a romantic heartbreak; so he was probably very sensitive about what was happening with Wally. If the two of them were meant to be, they will be together. And Iris was willing to bet her savings on the two of them being together.

Barry gave her a weird look, before he focused on Wally. “But, hey, that’s not what you’re looking all weirded out for, is it?” Wally bit his lip and looked tentatively around the kitchen and Iris could almost _taste_ his apprehension on the air. “Come on, Kid, you can tell us anything,” Barry pressed a little putting an arm around Wally’s shoulder and giving him half a hug.

“I… Is it ok, for me to come back here?” Wally asked, and Iris was caught off guard by that question. _What’s that supposed to mean?_

“What?” Barry asked, looking as confused as she felt. Wally opened his mouth, but quickly closed it and started to do that thing Barry did where he let the lightning take over as he started to overthink stuff in the Speed Force time. Iris huffed annoyed at it and lightly tapped Wally on the arm. It usually worked to bring Barry back into human time and get him to talk, and Joan had confided the trick also worked on Jay, so she was pretty certain it was a speedster thing.

As expected Wally stopped vibrating in place and started speaking, “I’ll… I’ll understand if you want me to… You know, I could stay at Mount Justice, with _Megan, and Conner and Zee… I don’t have to come ba-_ ”

“Wally, what are you talking about?” Iris asked interrupting him before he started going into full speed talk. He wasn’t as bad a Barry, but it still made it hard for her to follow him. “Where is this coming from?” she asked. _Stay at Mt. Justice? Why?_

“Do you… Do you not wanna live with us anymore?” Barry asked, and Iris noticed the tremor in his voice as he asked the question she was far too much of a coward to even consider. Luckily, Wally looked up at him and shook his head fast. “What? No!” he said with those green eyes wide open, looking at Barry scared, “I love living here! I just… I was thinking… Dick was really hurt. He was really mad about me leaving, and… and then I was running here from Gotham and I thought…” He shrugged a little and bit his lip before looking back down to the floor. “Maybe. If you don’t want… If you would like some time, too. I mean, Mt. Justice is always an option, you don't have to…”

Barry was looking at Wally with wide eyes and his mouth hanging open, and he was about three seconds away to be the one to start overthinking, Iris could practically see the lighting in his eyes already. She closed her eyes and sighed.

She should have expected this.

Actually, she couldn’t have, she had had no idea that Dick had taken the break up hard. Honestly, she’d barely even considered Dick. She felt a little bad about that, not checking up on him. Something to take into account, to be closer to Dick as their relationship mends. _If_ …

_No, ‘as’ is right… as it mends._

Still, she should have thought about this. Wally had probably thought they’ll be mad at him for running away, and coming out of the camp to see his boyfriend hadn’t taken the break up as well as he’d probably thought, it was logical he would have worked himself on a worry over how they would take his return.

Wally had this amazing resilience, and he was able to take changes to his environment in a stride, and just work with the scenario he’s given, and tended to think people did so as well. He’d probably believed he could ran out of the camp and walk back into Dick’s live and it would be back into normal relatively easily. To find a wall he hadn’t expected…

“Wally- Wally, look at me.” Iris said putting her hand on his chin and raising his face until she was looking those hurt, open green eyes. “You will always be welcome here, do you hear me. I…” she stopped a second trying to articulate what to say. She needed to be honest to him, but also calming and welcoming. “I mean, yes, you going out with your father’s idea really hurt. I’m not gonna lie to you, it was hard seeing you leave. And it was harder not noticing how much you’ve been hurting up until now. But that doesn’t mean you’re not welcome back.” She said looking at him straight to the eye and placing both hands on his shoulders. Wally’s lip trembled as he nodded looking at her with the beginning of a smile.

Barry moved to her side and put his hand on her hip, bringing her close to a hug and looking at Wally “You’ll always have a home here, Kid.” Barry said, and Iris felt a shudder ran under Wally’s shoulders, and she could see that sentence was something Wally needed to hear. She felt an ugly pang of jealousy at noticing his husband was more tuned with his nephew than she was, but she squashed that thought as soon as it appeared. _We’re a family, there’s no need for jealousy here._

“This is your home. No conditions, no questions, no explanations , no nothing, ok? Your Aunt and I love having you around, and that’s not gonna change anytime soon.” Barry continued, before he bit his lip and hummed and Iris almost laughed at seeing the similarity between that image and Wally’s face just a couple seconds ago.

“Now, if you wanna go out and spend some time at Mt. Justice, then I could-” Barry tried to offer tentatively, but Wally cut him quickly. “No!” The scream surprised Iris and she felt her eyebrows rise, but then she felt a warm feeling seeing Wally’s pink ears as he realized his outburst. “I… I would love to stay here.” He said softly, and she grinned at him.

“Great!” she said squeezing his shoulder and looked around the kitchen noticing the still open oven. _Right._ “Now let’s eat. Wally, go set the table. Barry, bring out the food; I’m gonna go wash my hands.” She ordered, and her two speedsters ran to fulfill their tasks.

Five minutes later, they were all sitting around the plates, and Iris took her own slice from a baking dish to a plate while Barry and Wally dropped pretenses and used the baking dishes as plates. She smiled to them, too used to speed eating to have it affect her appetite.

She took her time to enjoy the food.

In the middle of dinner, Barry brought up the smuggler case and Wally looked up and asked him about it. Suddenly, Iris realized why he’d been going on and on about it earlier, making it look as some massive case and not just the normal shipment that they both knew it was, and she could see how the conversation was about to go even before Wally’s eyes lit up like the Christmas lights she was thinking of hanging sometime this week.

She sent a dark glare at Barry, letting him know that she was onto his plan, and he simply smiled at her as he answered Wally’s questions. She grumbled as she grabbed a forkful of lasagna and put it on her mouth as Wally excitedly asked ‘ _Do you think you’ll need help with it?_ ’

Barry gave her a pleading look and she was about to answer with a definite No. Wally had just came home. He hadn’t been running around for over a month, he’s been on a leave from the Team for longer than that. And call it stupid, but she wanted him _there_. At least for a while.

But then, Wally followed his uncle’s gaze and looked pleadingly at her with a raised eyebrow. And she knew instantly she’d been defeated. She sighed and rolled her shoulders and both her boys whooped and finished their dinners even faster than before.

After dinner, Wally insisted on taking care of the dishes, but Barry took it over for them and instead directed Wally to his room, to go unpack and check his Kid Flash costume. Wally ran up to his room and Iris could hear him messing with the furniture up there. She stood behind his husband and pinched his ass a little harder than she needed, causing soap water to go everywhere and earning a hurt look.

She huffed and pointed at him. “You, sir, are in trouble,” she told him and he smiled sheepishly at her and looked pleadingly “Oh, come on, honey! He needs this! A little running, a little lightning. It’ll be good, I promise.”

“He better” she said going back into the living room.

Then a thought passed her head, “Hey, Wally. Before you go, if you have dirty clothes, make sure you wash them tonight.” She shouted standing on the stairs and looking up at Wally’s room. “I’m washing the bed sheets tomorrow and you know, I don’t-”

A whoosh later his nephew was standing in front of her with his blue dirty clothes basket on his hands and a grin on his face. “You don’t like having to load the machine more than twice every day. Yeah, I know.” He finished. She clicked his tongue at him annoyed and he managed to run away before she was able to slap him on the back of his head for mocking her.

She catched some of his laughter as he went to the back room and then some banter between her boys. She took a couple of deep breaths, feeling the _rightness_ that was coming back to her house, with her kid running around and laughing. She decided to go up to her studio. Her boys were going out on their mission, so she might as well dedicate her time to her job and fix those two articles for Jay.

She had a feeling her mental block had already lifted.


End file.
